Today's sports fan experiences events from both inside and outside of the arena. During game-play and off the field, fans follow their teams digitally via social media to stay up to date and show their team pride. Done right, teams can leverage these channels to maintain interest and encourage further engagement, creating powerful brand advocates and winning fans for life. A tactical playbook developed by digital strategists specializing in sports marketing, this guide describes how to use content pillars, consumer generated content, the value of community management and more. Step up to the plate and read more - it's game time. Follow @digitalesquire https://twitter.com/digitalesquire for more

1. FINDING THE
END ZONEW I T H S O C I A L M E D I A I N S P O R T S

2. TABLE OF
CONTENTS
T H E G A M E P L A N
OVERVIEW: The Social Playbook
AUDIT & IMMERSION: Going Deep for Alignment & Insights
SOCIAL STRATEGY: Creating the Playbook
CONTENT STRATEGY: Establish the Run Game
CHANNEL EXPANSION: Running a Spread Offense
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Leap Into the Crowd
OPTIMIZE: In-Game Adjustments
3
6
9
11
18
28
33

3. THE SOCIAL
PLAYBOOK

4. THE TEAM
The Line
(Designers, Community Managers,
& Copywriters)
Unsung heroes who
handle the lift
The Coach
(Account Manager & Strategist)
Sets the strategy and
calls the plays
Analysts
(Social/Digital Analysts)
Observe and measure
the action
Quarterbacks
(Creative/Art Directors)
Spearhead the plays
Every great social plan needs a strong, dedicated team behind it that never stops fighting for wins.

5. THE PLAYBOOK
SOCIAL AUDIT
& BRAND
IMMERSION
1
SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGY &
PLANNING
CONTENT
STRATEGY &
PILLARS
SOCIAL
CHANNEL
EXPANSION
EXECUTE THE
GAME PLAN
OPTIMIZATION
2 3 4 5 6
Together, a successful social team will build a complex plan for any situation.

6. GO DEEP FOR
ALIGNMENT &
INSIGHTS
A U D I T & I M M E R S I O N

7. SOCIAL BRAND IMMERSION
TEAM
STRATEGY
SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGY
ANNUAL
MARKETING
STRATEGY
BRAND
POSITIONING
BRAND VOICE
MARKET
RESEARCH
BRAND ASSET
INVENTORY
COMPETITIVE
LANDSCAPE
SOCIAL MEDIA
PRIORITIES
SOCIAL MEDIA
AUDIT
A winning game plan is based on a deep understanding of your team, your players, and your competition.

8. CREATING THE
PLAYBOOK

9. SOCIAL “ZONE”
STRATEGY
S
O
C
I A L B R A N D VO
ICE
SOC
IA
L
B R A N D I N G & S T Y LE
G
U
IDE
CO
M
M
U
N
I T Y & C R I S I S M A N AG
E
M
ENT
C
H
A
N
N
E L
S P E C I F I C C O N T E N T
P
L
A
N
S
M
E A S U R E M E N T & R E P O R T I N
G
TA R G E T AU D I E N C E I N T E R E ST S
C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y & P I L L A R S

10. ESTABLISHING
THE RUN GAME
D AY- T O - D AY

11. CONTENT
PILLARS
Create themed, recognizable posts to build
fans’ expectations. Define content pillars on a
specific topic or theme, which can be broken
into various sections, pieces, and materials.

12. CONTENT
CREATION
Understand the landscape of content that is
distributed and consumed to identify and construct
future content that reaches your target and
maximizes effectiveness through:
• Identifying and tapping into content trends
• Leveraging existing behaviors to plan future
content calendars
• Taking advantage of engagement triggers
• Refining personas and story creation
• Creation of digital assets and artifacts
• Designing & developing of media assets

13. PRE-EMPTIVE CONTENT PLANNING
1st Home
Game
Rivalry Game
Player
Injuries
End of
Season
Playoffs
Free
Agency
Draft
Off-Season
Community
Service
Training
Camp
With so much going on during the season, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the hype
and fall behind. There are always some things that will happen every season though,
and you can plan for that content in advance to be more effective.

14. REAL-TIME FAN
ENGAGEMENT
Celebrating
Birthdays, New
Jobs, etc.
Providing
Solutions
Responding to
UGC

15. SOCIAL
CHANNEL
EXPANSION
S P R E A D O F F E N S E

16. CHANNEL EXPLORATION
With so many new and emerging channels, it’s important to evaluate where teams should
look next. Youth participation is on the decline in virtually all major sports, so a presence
where those ever elusive millennial currently engage is the only way to continue to
expand your fan-hood.

17. CREATE A
SOCIAL STADIUM
Social can not only be a great way to keep
fans connected from day to day, but also to
increase excitement and connectivity during
games, and to continue expanding
sponsorship activations.

18. TWEET-BY-TWEET
COVERAGE
More and more fans are turning to their
social networks to stay up to date with
current events, including live sports. So,
whether they're on a plane and can't catch
the game, or just looking for another take
while watching on TV, live Tweeting play-
by-play coverage in the team’s voice can
keep fans connected.
BUZZER BEATER by
@KingJames Cavs win!!!
@Cavs

19. GAME TIME
After being purchased by Amazon for nearly
a billion dollars last year, Twitch has
developed from a place for video game
enthusiasts to view and participate in real
time gameplay, to a unique social sharing
environment where people from around the
world can watch users game, play board
games, train, play music, or just socialize. It
now accounts for more than 43% of all live
video streaming traffic by volume, and
represents an exciting opportunity to target
the ever-growing audience of fans through
non-traditional channels.

20. SNAP TO OUR
YOUNG FANS
With sports viewership declining (NFL
viewership - arguably the U.S.’s most-watched
sport - seeing a 5.3% decline alone),* it's
important to speak to young fans on social
platforms popular amongst their age group.
Snapchat sees over 400 million shares per
day, with 71% of its users under the age of 25.
*Nielsen data prepared by Horizon Media, 2010-2013.

21. #PINNING
With over 73 million users, and reaching a
staggering 42% of online adult women,
Pinterest is especially powerful at reaching
female fans. Opportunities in this platform
extend directly to merchandising, with Pinterest
leading against other social networks in terms
of retail conversion in the past 2 years.*
*Source: Adobe Digital Index 2014

22. INSTANT REPLAYS
As digital users share videos 1200% more than links and text
combined,* connections will not only be made with existing
fans, but new fans across the globe. From short snippets of
only a few seconds, to live streaming video that can span
hours, there's a variety of ways to connect fans through social
video. Social video content may include live streaming of draft
day or training camp through Periscope, or brief tips and
insights from staff through Vine or Instagram, and can then be
syndicated on YouTube and Facebook along with longer form
content for further views and shares.
*Source: Adobe Digital Index 2014

23. TRAINING CAMP
All of these networks are in use by many team staff, players,
coaches and personnel with or without official team
endorsement or oversight. Taking a proactive role in defining
the “dos” and “don’ts” will benefit the team by reducing any
potential mis-steps or audibles in times of crisis. Create a
social “playbook” that outlines the proper use of each
channel, why it’s important (or unimportant), the type of
content and conversation that should be disseminated, and
how to best interact with fans using the network.
*Source: Adobe Digital Index 2014

24. OTHER CHANNELS

25. COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
L E A P I N T O T H E C R O W D

26. LEVERAGING CHANNELS TO
THE FULLEST
There is great opportunity for interaction between any organization and its communities.
For the purposes of feedback, increasing favorability, and conversation it’s important to
activate advocates, inspire more user-generated content, and create surprise and delight
micro-moments, all while assisting with any customer service needs.
67%
of consumers have used a
brand’s social media for
servicing
20-40%
of customers spend more
with a brand that responds
on social media
67%
of consumers expect a same
day response from a brand
71%
of people who have a
positive experience with a
brand on social media will
recommend that brand

27. Create a
response
document we’re
all aligned to
Implement crisis
escalation plan,
outlining
possible issues
Add terms of
engagement to
Facebook
Revisit the
profanity filter
and blocked
words on
Facebook
COMMUNITY & CRISIS
MANAGEMENT

28. TRIBES &
INFLUENCERSThe power of Tribes and identifying the influencers
within them to create powerful advocates:
• Activate advocates to share their love for the your team.
• Empower advocates to speak about the team.
• Reward advocates for their loyalty with team-sponsored giveaways.

29. USER
GENERATED
CONTENT
Activate the “Tribe” by inviting imagery from their
tailgates, parties, holiday decorations, and home decor
to fuel content for branded digital profiles. Contests
can create even more opportunities for people to
share their favorite photos and memories on a regular
basis. Recognition of fans and their best recipes and
Halloween costumes will create even more love and
appreciation among a strong fan base.

30. IN-GAME
ADJUSTMENTS
O P T I M I Z E

31. PLATFORM
INTEGRATION
Integration of enterprise and custom tools for measurement, content approvals, and
community management not only allows for “on-field” approvals and monitoring but
also provides more in-depth insights for optimization. Investing in robust management
tools, like a star player, is well worth the hit on your marketing salary cap.

32. KEY METRICS TO
MEASURE
Impressions,
Reach & Video
Views
Engagement &
Amplification of
Posts
Sentiment Benchmark to
other Teams
Community Growth
by Channel / Platform

33. CONTACT US
G E T I N T H E G A M E
bizdev@digitalsurgeons.com